


for the you in the past

by aestheticisms (R_Vienna)



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 20:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_Vienna/pseuds/aestheticisms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The way he laughs makes Sigma think of a dying man. -- Tenmyouji, Sigma, and the Woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	for the you in the past

The way he laughs makes Sigma think of a dying man. 

Tenymouji is made up of live wires and scathing glares—the laughter that comes out of that man’s mouth sounds foreign, forced. After the spasms die out, he slumps, kneels next to the old woman’s corpse, and Sigma swears he sees the older man wipe an offending tear from his cheek.  He gingerly takes the woman in his arms, and cradles her against his chest. It’s a touching moment, and it’s ruined almost immediately: Phi jumps into action, white hair a blur and mouth open wide, barking out orders—to the infirmary, get Luna, good fuckin’ god,—and at her command, the warehouse erupts into a flurry of motion and noise. 

The black haired male follows the group through the yellow door, and when he finally makes it to the infirmary, he is met with a silence reserved for funerals. Luna finishes scanning the old woman’s body with a nervous scowl, her pretty features dark and agitated. 

"She’s…." Luna struggles with the phrasing, but Phi does not have time for the orange haired girl’s fumbling and quivering.  

"She’s dead."

The room reacts accordingly, Clover gasps in an exaggerated fashion that Alice contrasts with a simple ‘oh my’. Dio scoffs and shoves his hands into his brilliant red coat. K is an enigma, Sigma can’t read him past the armor and the robe, but Quark is tugging on Tenmyouji’s blue shirt sleeve, trying to elicit a reaction. 

The man is silent. His gaze does not waver, glued to the woman’s hands, folded against her chest as if in prayer. 

"Uh, Tenmyouji?" 

He ignores Sigma’s query with an irritated sigh and turns away without another word. 

Quark follows and the room flickers back to life. Luna ushers the remainder of the group outside and Phi pulls out a divider to give the woman privacy.

Sigma leaves when Luna taps his shoulder and leads him to the door, she asks where he is going next. The male shrugs.

"I’ll probably go check out the lounge, or something." 

"All right, Sigma. be careful." Luna grants him another smile, and he feels his heart melt. She is sunshine and...he is _leaving_ , before his thoughts get too sappy. His feet lead him to the warehouse, and there he bumps into Tenmyouji, sans his eleven year old shadow. The man leans against a wall, looking so very old. The bags under his eyes are charcoal smudges against his pale skin, his sharp facial structure _just_ offsets his entire demeanor, and Sigma lets out another sigh.

"Tenmyouji, are you all right?" 

"All right? All right? I should be asking you the same goddamn thing! A woman was murdered, and I’m the only one acting like it actually happened!” 

Sigma tries not to grimace, and lets out another year long sigh, right hand scratching the back of his head. It was hard to reason why Tenmyouji’s lapse of character bothers him so much; he shouldn’t care about the older man’s worries, but he couldn’t help it.

“Well, whatever. Do what you want.” Sigma says with the stubbornness native to twenty-two year olds and stalks off. Tenmyouji purses his lips and crosses his arms over his chest, and tries not to remember.

He tries and tries and tries.

He remembers.

Akane Kurashiki hated the color purple. 

(The past tense was absolutely necessary now, and Junpei Tenmyouji _despises_ it.) 

When they first meet, decades and decades ago, she is wearing rose pink and ruby red, and she is smiling. They held hands behind the school jungle gym, and shared secrets, and laughed at the sky—the clouds were the only thing that separated them from the rest of the universe, she said with small hands raised and fingers spread out, clutching and grabbing for something too far to reach. Junpei simply rolled his eyes and laughed along because sometimes the words she said were too complicated or too lofty for him to respond to. His dirt stained hands would eventually reach hers and he’d pull her arms down and act as a tether. He would keep her grounded, here, next to him.

He wouldn’t realize the symbolism of that simple action until years later, when they meet again and she is the incarnation of violets and aster, and their meeting is so jarring, maybe because her eyes were brighter and her legs were longer, or it’s the chestnut hair, dark and shiny and so out of place against her purple sweater dress. Maybe, for the second she lays above him after tripping down the ship’s elegant staircase, he thinks ‘ _this is not Kanny_ ’. But the second passes, and everything is okay. It’s like she never left. She is warm to the touch and she is smiling, she is bright. 

Nine seconds tick by and he’s in love again. 

Nine hours pass and he’s obsessed. 

Her kisses burn and her smiles are hollow, June is not Akane, and Akane is not June, and Junpei is left desperately searching for a ghost girl. For years and years he searches—he leaves Japan with a degree in astrophysics and economics, and scours the world for a girl he knows he will never find. 

He grows old, grows bitter, and the obsession turns into ire. 

“Grandpa?” 

He tries to forget. 

It’s no longer for his own sake. He must forget. He must. If not for himself, for the boy in front of him, shaking his hand and fighting for his attention. Tenmyouji raises his head and opens his eyes. Quark smiles, and lets out a small laugh, dark eyes bright despite their grim situation.

“Sorry to disturb you, grandpa, but everyone’s waiting at the chromatic doors! We should get goin’.” 

Tenmyouji nods, yes of course, let’s go. 

Anything to make the image of his first love’s corpse go away.

Anything to forget. 

**Author's Note:**

> zero escaaaaaaaaape ruined my life


End file.
